PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
Facial features are important sources of information about perceived trustworthiness. Masks and protective clothing diminish the visibility of facial cues by either partially concealing the mouth and nose or covering the entire face. During the pandemic, the use of personal protective equipment affected and redefined who trusts whom in society. This study used the classical investment game of interpersonal trust with Chinese participants to explore the impact of occlusion on interpersonal trust. Faces with moderate initial trustworthiness were occluded by a mask or protective clothing in Experiment 1 and were digitally occluded by a square in Experiment 2, and faces with three levels of initial trustworthiness were occluded by a mask in Experiment 3. Results showed that both undergraduates (Experiment 1a) and non-student adults (Experiment 1b) perceived the faces with protective clothing as more trustworthy than faces wearing standard masks and faces not wearing masks. Faces with the top halves showing were perceived as trustworthy as full faces, while faces with the bottom halves showing were perceived as less trustworthy. The effect of masks is weak and complex. Masks reduced participants\' trust in faces with high initial trustworthiness, had no effect on faces with low and moderate initial trustworthiness, and only slightly increased the trust of undergraduates in faces with moderate initial trustworthiness. Our findings indicate that the lack of information caused by occlusion and the social significance associated with occlusion collectively affect people\'s trust behavior in Chinese society. We believe the findings of this study will be useful in elucidating the effects of personal protective equipment usage on perceptions of trustworthiness.
摘要：
面部特征是有关感知可信度的重要信息来源。口罩和防护服通过部分隐藏嘴和鼻子或覆盖整个面部来减少面部线索的可见性。大流行期间,个人防护设备的使用影响并重新定义了社会中谁信任谁。本研究利用中国参与者人际信任的经典投资博弈来探讨闭塞对人际信任的影响。在实验1中，具有中等初始可信度的面孔被口罩或防护服遮挡，在实验2中被正方形数字遮挡，在实验3中，具有三个初始可信度的面孔被口罩遮挡。结果表明，本科生（实验1a）和非学生成年人（实验1b）都认为穿着防护服的面孔比戴标准口罩和不戴口罩的面孔更值得信赖。上半部分露出的脸被认为是值得信赖的，就像完整的脸一样，而底部一半的面孔被认为不太值得信任。面具的效果是微弱和复杂的。面具降低了参与者对具有高初始可信度的面孔的信任，对初始可信度低和中等的面孔没有影响，并且仅略微增加了大学生对具有中等初始可信度的面孔的信任度。我们的发现表明，由闭塞引起的信息缺乏以及与闭塞相关的社会意义共同影响了人们在中国社会中的信任行为。我们相信这项研究的结果将有助于阐明个人防护设备使用对可信度的影响。
